OPRA Request for Incident Reports
Dear Atlantic City,
Please accept this electronic request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form or use a particular software platform to submit my request per NJSA 47:1A-6(f), which states that an email from a requestor including all of the information required on the adopted form shall suffice in place of a completed form as a valid government record request.
I HAVE NOT been convicted of any indictable offense under the laws of New Jersey, any other state, or the United States.
I WILL NOT use the requested government records for a commercial purpose.
I AM NOT seeking records in connection with a legal proceeding.
Records requested:
Incident reports, including full narratives, pertaining to charges of obstruction, resisting arrest, and assault on a police officer spanning the dates January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2024.
My preferred delivery method for response(s) to this request is by email as attachments. Please confirm you have received this request. If you are not the custodian of records, please forward my request to that person and provide their email address to me for future reference.
OPRA Request – City of Atlantic City
Re: Incident reports, including full narratives, pertaining to charges of
obstruction, resisting arrest,
and assault on a police officer spanning the dates January 1, 2022, to
December 31, 2024.
Good morning:
I am following-up on the response to your OPRA request.
Please be advised, as submitted your OPRA request is overbroad. See
N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq.
A party requesting access to a public record under OPRA must specifically
describe the document sought. Bent v. Twp. of Stafford Police Dep't,
Custodian of Records, 381 N.J. Super. 30, 37 (App. Div. 2005); Gannett New
Jersey Partners, LP v. Cty. Of Middlesex, 379 N.J. Super. 205, 213 (App.
Div. 2005); MAG Entm't, LLC v. Div. of Alcoholic Beverage Control, 375
N.J. Super. 534, 546-49 (App. Div. 2005). A proper request under OPRA must
identify with reasonable clarity those documents that are desired. Bent,
381 N.J. Super. at 37; see also Burke v. Ocean Cty., 2013 WL 6169154, at
*3 (App. Div. Nov. 26, 2013) (differentiating a proper OPRA request from
broad civil discovery).
Additionally, OPRA “is not intended as a research tool ... to force
government officials to identify and siphon useful information.” See
Bent v. Twp. of Stafford Police Dep't, Custodian of Records, 381 N.J.
Super. 30, 37 (App. Div. 2005) (quoting MAG Entm't, LLC v. Div. of
Alcoholic Beverage Control, 375 N.J. Super. 534, 546-49 (App. Div. 2005).
A records custodian is not required “to conduct research among its records
... and correlate data from various government records in the custodian's
possession.” Id. To qualify under OPRA, the request must reasonably
identify a record and not generally seek data, information or statistics."
As drafted, your request would require government officials to research or
analyze information to determine responsiveness and/or identify and siphon
information that is not readily searchable, neither of which is required
by OPRA. See MAG Entm’t, LLC v. Div. of Alcohol Beverage Control, 375
N.J. Super. 534 (App. Div. 2005); Burke v. Brandes, 429 N.J. Super. 169
(App. Div. 2021) (OPRA does not cover “research or analysis” to identify
responsive documents).
Kindly re-submit your request and identify the specific incident reports
that you are seeking.
Thank you.
Eddie Lax
Keyboarding Clerk 4
City Clerk’s Office
City of Atlantic City
[1]cid:image001.jpg@01D77E21.AEF596B0 1301 Bacharach Blvd – Room #704
Atlantic City, NJ 08401
(609) 347-5510
Email: [2][email address]
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